This room was filled with such a darkness.
“It feels like a vampire,” I said, the chill running across my flesh making me suddenly glad of the multiple layers of clothing.
“Vampires can’t cross thresholds uninvited.” Ethan’s footsteps echoed on the wooden boards as he walked across to the window.
“There’s no saying Jon didn’t invite it in.”
“Except the cops reported that all windows and doors had still been locked from the inside.” He paused, looking out the sea-salt blasted pane of glass. “Besides, we’re on the second floor, and there are no nearby trees. Vampires can’t fly.”
“But they can climb ladders.”
“Soft soil. They would have found ladder imprints.”
I sucked in the air again, felt the foulness of it swirl through me. “It’s definitely a vampire. Or at least something along those lines. It has that same dead feeling.”
“And there’s nothing else?”
I sifted through the undercurrents and deeper threads of lingering emotions. “No fear. Whatever took him, he wasn’t afraid. Not at first, anyway.”
He glanced at me. “Not at first?”
I crossed my arms, and frowned. “No. I have a feeling that fear might have come later, but at the very beginning, he was a dreamer caught in a dream.” I paused, finding a hint of arousal and excitement—and neither emotion had anything to do with Ethan or me. “He was chasing sexual completion.”
Ethan raised his eyebrows. “He’s run off with a girlfriend?”
I shrugged. “It would explain the locked doors and windows. Most teenagers his age have keys.”
He studied me for a moment, then walked over to the rumbled sheets, his nostrils flaring as he breathed deep. “There’s no lingering scent of sex.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Would you have sex with your girlfriend when your mom was in the room next door?”
His sudden smile was decidedly roguish, and had my pulse doing one of those excited little quicksteps.
“You’d be surprised what I got away with when my mom was in the next room.”
“Actually, no, I wouldn’t.”
He picked up a photograph and stared at the image. “Going off with a girlfriend doesn’t explain why you smell vampire.”
“It would if the girlfriend was some sort of succubus.” Succubae—or energy vamps, as they were sometimes called—sucked life force rather than life blood and, unlike true vamps, they had fewer restrictions. Like being able to cross thresholds.
“They’re rare—especially in a small, out-of-the-way place like this.”
“Rare doesn’t mean can’t exist.”
“True.” He put the photo frame back down. “You up to visiting the other kid’s room?”
Part of me wanted to say no. Tasting shadows and darkness was never a pleasant thing, and usually I avoided doing it more than once a day. “It’s doubtful any useful scents will remain after a week.”
“But are you up to trying?”
I rubbed my arms. “Yeah. I guess.”
But only because time was of the essence if we were dealing with a succubus. Unlike regular suckers, they didn’t drain their victims in one hit, but rather over a couple of days. We still had a chance of finding Jon alive if we hurried.
Hope had all but faded when it came to the first boy, though. Succubae rarely went after another victim until they’d finished with the first.
“Did it say anywhere in the file whether the two boys hung out together?”
He shook his head. “But in a town this size, they probably would.” He paused. “Why?”
“Because it just seems odd an energy vamp would go after two teenage boys. I always thought they went after older, stronger life forces.”
“Normally, yeah.” He looked down at the bed for a moment, then walked around it and lightly touched my elbow. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
Warmth flared where he touched, spreading like a wildfire up my arm and across my body, washing the chill and the thick feeling of darkness from my skin.
Normally I would have pulled away but right then, I needed that warmth. Needed the reminder of life and healthy, normal emotions to erase the last remainders of evil from my soul.
We walked down the stairs and back into the kitchen. Mari turned around as we entered, her hands gripped around a steaming mug of coffee and hope in her eyes. “Anything?”
“Perhaps,” I said cautiously, not wanting to feed the hope, but unwilling to crush it, either. “Tell me, did Jon have a girlfriend?”
She smiled. “No. He preferred hanging out with his mates.”
“Could you write out their names and addresses, and give it to us when we come back this afternoon? We’ll need to talk to them, just in case they know or saw something.”
She nodded. “I think the police already talked to them.”
“We’d still like to double-check,” Ethan said, and lightly squeezed the elbow he still held.
We continued on outside, and I took a deep breath of the warm, summery air. Felt it brush the last vestiges of darkness from my lungs.
“Now you look a little healthier,” Ethan said, his gaze sweeping my face.
I pulled free of his grip and got some space between us again. “It always feels like the darkness is invading my soul, eating away at my very self.” A shudder ran through me. “And I always fear that one day, there won’t be any me left, just a memory and the sweeping strands of darkness.”
Which is something I’d told so very few people. Maybe my brush with evil had left me feeling more vulnerable than normal.
Though you’d think I’d be used to such brushes by now.
He frowned. “Then why do it? Why take that risk?”
“Because I have a gift, and it can sometimes save lives.” I shrugged. “My parents were the type who ingrained the ideology that if we have a skill, we should use it.”
“Even at the risk of your very self?”
“Even at.” I rubbed my arms again as we made our way towards Ethan’s car. “Can we talk about something else?”
“How about sex?”
“Other than that,” I said dryly.
He opened the car door and ushered me inside. “I don’t believe my topics of conversations contain anything else.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Because I’m a werewolf, and werewolves only talk about two things, don’t they? Sex, and how to get sex.”
He slammed the door shut and walked around to the driver’s side of the car, leaving me wondering about the slight edge in his voice. It wasn’t like I’d actually brought the damn subject up. Far from it.
He climbed into the driver’s seat, started the car, then accelerated down the driveway and onto the Great Ocean Road. Three streets and a quick left, and we were outside the second boy’s house. Like Ethan had said, this town wasn’t very big.
A woman waited out in front, her arms crossed over massive bosoms and an anxious expression on her fleshy face. “Mari rang and explained why you were coming,” she said, voice filled with strain and tiredness. “Do you really think you can help?”
“We can only try,” I said, then held out my hand and introduced myself. Ethan did the same. “What can you tell us about your son’s activities in the days before his disappearance?”
She shrugged. “He was out with his mates, most days.”
“Was one of those mates Jon?”
She nodded, then gave us an anxious sort of look. “Are the two connected? The police won’t say whether they are or aren’t.”
Maybe the police weren’t, but the local papers sure as hell were. Which undoubtedly was making life even harder for the parents of the other teenagers in Brad and Jon’s “gang.” “We don’t know as yet.” I paused, looking past her. “Can we go inside and look at his room?”